If you are looking for a last minute activity for the holiday weekend we recommend a visit to the Victoria Mansion in Portland, ME.  The Italianate estate was the ambitious undertaking of Ruggles Sylvester Morse and his architect Henry Austin.

Here is some background on the mansion from New England Home magazine.

Ruggles Sylvester Morse fashioned his summer retreat in Portland, Maine, after the Italian palaces of the fifteenth century, grand in scale with bold ornamentation. That the massive brownstone villa stood in sharp contrast to the white clapboard and red brick houses of the neighborhood didn’t concern the wealthy hotelier at all. Rather, he quite wanted his summer palace to stand out.

A native of rural Maine, Morse left the state in his teens to seek his fortune. By the late 1840s, his career had landed him in New Orleans, where he grew wealthy as the proprietor of several of the city’s most magnificent hotels.

In 1858, Morse commissioned a summer estate on the coast of Maine. New Haven architect Henry Austin, a recognized master of the Italianate style, designed Morse’s asymmetrical villa around a soaring square tower with a striking view toward Portland Harbor. The design features varied rooflines, deep overhanging eaves and graceful verandas, porches and balconies. Arched and rectangular windows, capped with arched or triangular pediments, play against one another on all façades.

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Victoria Mansion is open for guided tours from May through October, Monday through Saturday 10 a.m.–4 p.m., Sunday 1 p.m.–5 p.m. $10 adults, $5 children six to seventeen, free under age six. 109 Danforth St., Portland, Maine, (207) 772-4841.